LITTLE ROCK, AR
-- In a court conference held this afternoon (Apr 21, 2003), the Pulaski County
Special School District agreed with the American Civil Liberties Union and a
federal judge that students have a Constitutional right to be openly gay in
school.

"We're very
pleased that the court recognized right away that a school has no place telling
gay students that they can't be out of the closet at school, " said Leslie
Cooper, a staff attorney for the ACLU Lesbian and Gay Rights Project.

In talks with ACLU
attorneys representing 14-year-old Thomas McLaughlin and counsel for the school
district, U.S. District Judge G. Thomas Eisele said that under the First Amendment
schools cannot silence or restrict students' speech unless it is disruptive.
The school's attorney agreed when Judge Eisele asked if the school would adhere
to the conditions the ACLU had asked for in its motion: that the school not
restrict McLaughlin's speech during non-instructional time with regard to his
sexual orientation or punishments he has received from school officials. Judge
Eisele went on to tell attorneys that he would expedite the trial in McLaughlin's
lawsuit, which the ACLU filed Tuesday.

"We're absolutely
thrilled with what Judge Eisele had to say this afternoon, " said Rita
Sklar, Executive Director of the ACLU of Arkansas. "Thomas McLaughlin has
been muzzled by his teachers and administrators for far too long, and in America
schools can't do that."

This afternoon's
conference clears the way for the lawsuit, in which the ACLU contends that school
officials violated Thomas McLaughlin's rights to free speech, equal protection,
and privacy, and that they violated the establishment clause of the First Amendment
by preaching to him and forcing him read the Bible as punishment.

The ACLU sent a
letter to the district on March 13 describing how Jacksonville Junior High School
faculty and administrators had "outed" Thomas McLaughlin to his parents
without his permission, preached to him, made him read the Bible, and disciplined
him for talking about his sexual orientation and later for talking about that
punishment.

McLaughlin is represented
by the ACLU's Lesbian and Gay Rights Project and attorney Kathy Hall of Little
Rock, who is volunteering her services for the ACLU of Arkansas.